Oh Canada!

Back from the Great Northwest and a fun weekend with Dad and Shirley following a fun conference in downtown Vancouver.  We flew in on Wednesday and it was one of those weeks where I got upgraded on things for no apparent reason. I had a Chrysler 300 reserved as I knew that we would pick up Dad and Shirley in the city on Friday and I wanted a comfortable car for them to drive in. When we got to the counter in Seattle to pick up the car, the agent told me they had a nice Dodge Challenger for us. What is it about car rental companies where you rent a specific car and they never have it? And who thinks a Challenger is equal to a 300? I told her that a Challenger would not work and I wanted a premium vehicle like I reserved. She offered me an Expedition for an extra $30 a day. Uh, NO. She said she could MAYBE get me an Explorer, but they had one that had just been turned back in and not serviced. She did have a Toyota Sequoia that is usually $25 more a day, but she could let me have it for $10 a day. I stood firm and she finally relented and let me take the Sequoia for the reserved price. The car is huge. It has a 5.7 liter V8. I had trouble parking the thing because of it's size. I had parked on Friday in a rooftop lot and the parking attendant had m move a block over to a basement garage lot because of the weight of the truck.

 

Darla and I drove up to the border and it was a comfortable drive. We stopped in Bellingham and got some cash and took a bathroom break. We crossed at the Peace Arch on I 5 and there were only two cars in front of us. We headed to White Rock and had an early dinner at the Boathouse restaurant overlooking the ocean. We split an order of fish and chips and had lam chowder and a Caesar salad. When it came time to pay, I realized that I had left my debit card in the machine in the parking lot. These new machines have you leave you card in the machine and the older machines had you "remove card quickly". Obviously I like those machines more. We checked with a couple of businesses as the card was gone. No one had turned it in. I finally called Chase and whoever found it had already called it in as lost. There are good people in the world and some of them live in Canada.

 

From there we drove up Highway 1 over the Granville bridge and in to Vancouver and checked into the Marriott Residence Inn on Hornsby. The hotel has underground parking and I had to maneuver the beast into a parking spot just outside the second roll up gate in the complex. I backed it in and had to negotiate around a support post. They could not get us on the 8th floor with the rest of the conference and upgraded us to a small suite on the 17th floor with a kitchen and a balcony overlooking the city.

 

The meeting is our annual planning meeting and we stay two days at the hotel in order to get in a four hour meeting and a dinner. The Marriott did not have meeting rooms, so we walked a half mile down to the University of British Columbia and met in their Law room. Alan had coffee and drink, but no food. Each year prior we had fruit and yogurt. Had I known, I'd have got up a little earlier and had breakfast at the Marriott buffet. I was famished by the time we got done with the meeting and Darla and I went straight to the White Spot on Granville and Drake for a Triple O burger and a shake.

 

Darla and I did relax in the afternoon and took a walk down Granville to the Mall area and she shopped. Surprise.

 

We had dinner that night and ate with our friends Jeff and Linda and one of the leaders of the WIAA agency, Stephen and his wife. Linda is the blonde to Darla's right and Jeff is sitting next to me at the table. We had dinner at Giordanno's on Hornby and had a great dinner. I worked with Jeff at Commercial Union in my first insurance job and we have known each other for almost 40 years. I meet quarterly with Jeff and another agent, Glen, who also worked at CU back in the day for lunch.

 

We invited Jeff and Linda to join us with Dad and Shirley on Friday, but they wanted to sightsee and we were having lunch at the Lonsbury Quay in North Van and then heading back to Surrey. They took off to Grouse Mountain and Capillano. We had breakfast with them and then met Dad and Shirley at the Steam Clock in Gastown. We hit a couple of shops and then walked to the Waterfront station and caught the Sea Bus ferry over to Lonsbury Quay on the North Vancouver waterfront. We had a nice dinner at Pier 7 on the water and then spent an inglorious 90 minutes with Darla and Shirley shopping. We drove back to Dad and Shirley's home in Surrey via the HOV lane and made it in less than 45 minutes, a record for a Friday afternoon.

 

We had our drinks and appetizers in the backyard on a glorious Canada Spring afternoon and then barbecued steak for dinner.

 

The Burns and Wilcox Brand Ambassadors in Professional golf, Jimmy Walker and Webb Simpson both had great weekends at the Player's Championship and I got to enjoy it with Dad as we taped the golf both Saturday and Sunday. Webb ended up winning the tournament by 5 strokes and Jimmy took second place and Burns and Wilcox was on parade as both players wear our logo on their shirts and Webb's caddy, Paul Tesori, wears our hat with a huge logo on the front. I think my boss had a GREAT weekend as both players were prominently featured on the telecast.

 

We did drive in to Fort Langley on Saturday and had ice cream and the girls...uh, shopped. The big winner was Samson as Darla bought him a couple of toys. In fact one of the toys was a leather bag that had a plastic water bottle sewn into it. I couldn't see that one lasting with our "power chewer". The shop proprietor insisted it would be a great buy. Well, five minutes and he had the thing torn open, the ears torn off it and the hair scattered everywhere. She also bought him a rubber squeaky toy that is still going strong.

 

We had dinner with Al and Sherry at their home and Al cooked a nice salmon and barbecued some chicken breasts. We hung out with their dog, Sprocket, and I was encouraged as some of his issues are the same as Samsons's.  It was a nice night.

 

Sunday we were invited to church with Matthew and met him in Abbotsford at 10 AM for service. His pastor had just got back from a conference in Sacramento and it turns out the conference was at our church and our main pastor had been at their church the month before and had lead their service. Small world. We had a nice time at church and then drove into town and met Cam and Kathy for a late brunch at the restaurant that Chris works at. Breakfast was great and he fixed a special scramble that was made with as Chris said, "everything we had in the kitchen". It was a nice visit and both Chris and Johnathan work at the restaurant (Johnathan just started and works as a prep chef). We got some nice pictures.

 

We sat and watched the end of the Players back at home and then were on the road by about 5:15 for our drive to the Seattle Tacoma airport. We stopped at the border and changed some money for chocolate. When we crossed the truck border, they had a detour around the main entrance road. I looked back when we got around it and there was an overturned pickup truck and a tarp over a body. Darla saw it and said it looked like the truck had lost it's load. Okay, we'll go with that.

 

We drove on to Bellingham and I had to gas up the beast and $70 later it was full. Darla wanted to have dinner, but everything was packed for Mother's Day. We stopped at several places that had an hour wait and got into Red Robin and seated right away. It was about 6:30 and when the food hadn't made it to us by 7:15, we up and left as we had a 10:20 flight and a 90 minute drive. We got stuck in traffic in Everett and it was stop and go. We were really sweating making it on time and finally the road cleared up and we got to the rental place about 9 PM. I did not stop to top off the tank and it was about a quarter low. We hopped the shuttle and dropped our bags about 9:20 and grabbed a steak bowl at the Q Doba and jumped on the plane. We got in at midnight and I slept in this morning until 8 AM and then mowed the lawn and cleaned up the yard. Darla and I drove over and picked up Samson who was thrilled to see us. He had torn up his bed and the new kennel employee was so apologetic. We know Samson and just shrugged it off. 

 

I went into work this afternoon and you are up to date. I went with the golf committee on Tuesday and we played Del Paso and I shot an 88 on the slope 139 course, so was happy with the outing. The picture of my foursome is the last one above. I play in a two day qualifier with Paul this weekend and this event sends the two qualifying teams straight to Poppy Hills in Pebble Beach. I'll let you know how we do. I hope you all are well. Ciao.